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Hi again! If you’re like me, February was the new official start of New Year’s resolutions. January was a trial month. Everyone knows that. Moving on. This month, I

This month, I reeeeeally wanted to follow through as I am so, so very terrible at it. I made a pretty little tracking chart in my bullet journal and used lots of pinks and reds. Tons of hearts – it is the month of love after all. For about half of the month, I stuck with my highest priority goals. I took my medicine and supplements and logged my meals. I stayed around my carbohydrate goal in general but due to my lack of dedicated exercise, my calorie intake has probably been too high to really lose any weight. However, we managed to decrease our fast food spending this month due to forcing myself to take leftovers to work. It also helps that I have an AMAZING husband who offered to make me breakfast every weekday along with his.

Eggs and uncured bacon every day with the occasional toast. This day included salsa and queso fresco. Yum!

Today I went to get some labwork done ahead of next week’s endocrinologist appointment. Hopefully, my results move in the right direction. PCOS is not fun and is very defeating. I haven’t had as many breakdowns recently so that’s good. I’m trying to stay positive and keeping in mind why I want to lose weight and get healthy.

I also got a new computer today! So this may translate into more frequent blog posts. We’ll see. 😉

Oh, one final thing: Everyone needs to go check out April the Giraffe on YouTube. I’m obsessed and absolutely way too invested in this live giraffe birth for my own good, but I need people to discuss the adorableness of it all with. Tweet at me or find me on Instagram so we can have all sorts of giraffe-related convos. 🙂

…I am at my highest weight, ever! It’s depressing and shameful, but not all that surprising. There is so much I could be doing for my health but haven’t been trying hard enough, or at all if I’m being honest.

Over the weekend I took a look at my goals and figured out which ones I was on track with and which ones I wasn’t. I saw a meme the other day on Instagram: January was a free trial month. My knee is healing and I’m moving around more now. Slowly, but surely, my daily steps have increased. I restarted my supplement regimen and am taking my medicine more consistently. For the most part, I’ve really cut back on dining out this month as well.

January wraps up today and tomorrow is a new day. A new month. A fresh start. I’m going to continue my progress on the things mentioned above that I’m doing OK at. Changes for the month include starting PT for my knee, focusing on nutrition, and decluttering our apartment.

For physical therapy, I’m supposed to be working on my range of motion. This means hitting the gym at my apartment complex and becoming friends with the stationary bike for at least 20 mins a day. Alright, that’s easy enough, right? Then why haven’t I been doing it?? This HAS TO BE a priority if my knee surgery is to truly be a success. I don’t want a messed up knee.

Logging my food will probably be my best bet to get my nutrition on track. How can something be fixed if you don’t know the extent of the problem? Decreasing carb intake is the main goal of logging my meals. Insulin resistance makes it difficult to process carbs normally and has really lead to weight gain, especially around my belly. A ketogenic diet has worked the best for me previously in trying to lose weight. However, that was difficult because the best foods in life are carb-ilicious! Paleo, Whole 30, and Clean Eating are all fairly similar to me and I’ll be using their recipes and meal ideas as starting points. I will be trying to cut back on carbs to my previous doctor’s recommendation of less than 100g. Gotta go home and dust off our little food scale.

The last major change this coming month is decluttering and getting rid of stuff. Having a messy home can cause stress, even if you’re not consciously aware of it. Why do you think so many people clean when they have a big project to work on? Yes, it’s procrastination, but it is also a way of clearing your mind and allowing creativity to flow. We have a small apartment and two dogs. We’re not hoarders but we’re also not neat freaks. We have more clothes than we need (mostly my husband – in my obese state, I currently hate clothes shopping). This leads to piles of laundry and I hate putting up laundry so there are clothes all over the freaking place. I also have lots of art and crafts type items that I don’t use. I keep them around “just in case” a project needs them. Unfortunately, I’m all ideas and no execution. I’m just tired of seeing all the cluttered spaces around our home because it overwhelms me to the point that I don’t even know where to start and give up immediately. But no more! So buh-bye. You gots to go, stuff.

Alrighty…it’s now 2017. Time for “new year, new me” right? Well, with my track record that’ll only last a short time. I’m on a never-ending cycle of motivated action, not seeing the results I want, feeling defeated and giving up, and repeat. Somehow there must be a way to break this cycle.

Taking it one day, one week, one month at a time is probably the best. Evaluate and modify. Try again.

So again for this year my goals include getting healthy and losing weight. This year that means having my knee surgery (it’s just two days away!! *freak out*) and taking the time to recover. As soon as I am able, I will start on a workout routine that I can stick to. What that will be is still to be determined. This month I’m also focusing on increasing my water intake.

Other resolutions for this year include date night once a month, reading at least six books, making a cookbook recipe at least twice a month, learning a new language (check out the Duolingo app), and paying off our car loan ahead of time.

Today I’m feeling unusually motivated and positive. Perhaps it’s the fact that I slept over 8 hours last night (according to my Fitbit…I’m suspicious of that number though). Or perhaps, it’s because the weather is nice out. Who knows? The fact is, if I can hold on to this feeling for a while I can probably be more productive and make some real changes.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything. There’s no particular reason, I just have been lazy about it. We are a quarter of the way through the year already, which is hard to believe. Wasn’t it just January??

A couple of things have happened since my last couple of posts. I took my driving test and am now a fully licensed driver. Woopee! I don’t get on the highway yet, but I don’t really go anywhere besides work, grocery store, and gym. I have yet to get back to riding my bike. However, I do think my knee is finally getting strong enough to do so.

I have been to the doctor a few times already this year. I did an at-home sleep study to test for sleep apnea because I have trouble sleeping and wake up more than I’d like. Turns out I’m ok on that front, so my doc referred me to an ENT specialist. I paid my copay and after about a 10 minute visit, I was diagnosed with a deviated septum. It’s probably not the cause of my sleep issues, but I’m sure it doesn’t help. As for one of my other doc visits, I wanted to talk to him about my thyroid. PCOS comes with many, many different symptoms. Many of these symptoms can also be shared with/caused by thyroid problems. Several women with PCOS also have thyroid disorders, so after a lot of webMDing and Google searches I wanted to rule out any thyroid dysfunctions. Luckily, all is well there too. My doctor simply reminded me how important sticking to a low carb diet really is for my health and weight loss. Darn.

As for exercise, hubby and I joined a new gym last month. My membership includes 12 sessions with a team weight loss class that meets three times a week. The gym has tons of group fitness classes throughout the week as well. There are spin classes, yoga classes, dance/Zumba classes, and strength group classes. I’ve tried out a few of them and as part of my New Year resolution to try something new each month, I finally went to a couple of yoga classes. I am in love with them! As a beginner, it was intimidating the first time because I was afraid of being judged for not knowing the pose names or being as flexible as others. None of that happened (that I know of). The classes I checked out were all relatively easy and great for a beginner like me. The teachers talked us through the poses and adjusted us as needed. The lights were also kept pretty low in the room to add to the relaxation. My goal is now to go to at least two yoga classes a week. I sure could use the stretching, especially after sitting at work for hours.

That’s a little bit of what’s been going on around here. I’m slowly working on pushing myself out of my comfort zone because change and growth can’t happen if I do nothing. One of my new favorite quotes that helps is: “Waiting for someone else to make you happy is the surest way to be sad.” – Jeffrey Benjamin. I don’t want to be sad and stagnant. Gotta keep moving and improving. 😀

Not everyone believes in horoscopes and astrology but there’s gotta be some truth to it, right? Maybe it’s from growing up watching Walter Mercado on TV for years? Who knows… What I’m trying to get at is that as a Sagittarius I’m supposed to be an adventurer! In a way, I want to say that’s true. Since I was young, I’ve dreamed of traveling. Alas, I never really had the chance or means to do so.

I’ve only been to a few places outside of Texas: St. Louis for a conference, Turner Falls in Oklahoma, and another place in OK when some friends and I got lost trying to go see a meteor shower. Within Texas I’ve been to Austin and College Station to tour universities, Corpus Christi (just stopped to set foot in the water so it doesn’t really count), San Antonio, Houston, South Padre, and Galveston. These haven’t even all been long trips where I was able to explore much.

This year my hubby and I already have a few places we plan on visiting. We’ll be going on our belated honeymoon in Colorado in February, celebrating a friend’s wedding in Tokyo in April, and most likely visiting his grandparents in Pennsylvania in the summer! That’s 3 different places outside of Texas! I’m super excited!! I’m finalizing Colorado plans and my wonderful sister-in-law already started working on the itinerary for Japan!

I’ll also be keeping an eye out on last minute deals for somewhat spontaneous weekend trips throughout the year. Later on I hope to write a post of my favorite apps and websites or ones I found useful for travel planning. In the meantime, share what sites and apps y’all use.

For those who don’t know me IRL and read my last blog post, you’ll see that I don’t have a “real” driver’s license. I’m 26 (when the heck did that happen!?) and don’t drive. It’s not like I live in a super pedestrian-heavy/friendly location like NYC. I live in Texas! It takes forever to get from one place to another, especially if you live in the suburbs and not downtown.

While most kids are learning and eager to drive at 16, I wasn’t one of them. By the time I should’ve been learning to drive we only had one car. My stepdad was the one who drove us most of the time and my mom is terrified of highways. There was never any real reason for me to drive plus when I’d go out with friends we took the city bus to the mall or caught a ride with someone else. I did try learning to drive at one point but it wasn’t that great of an experience. My stepdad and I had our squabbles and butted heads a lot. He tried teaching me, for like 10 minutes, but we argued a lot so it didn’t work. My mom was too scared to teach me. I sometimes drove the car from the entrance gate of our apartment to our parking spot. That was until I happened to hit the tire of the car next to our spot (no damage done) and then I never wanted to drive/park again!

Flash forward a few years to college. I lived on campus and we had a bus that stopped by the grocery store and for the most part I worked on campus throughout my college years, so no need to drive. My friends had cars so if we went anywhere that’s how we’d get there. Eventually my boyfriend (now my hubby 😉 ) got a car and he drove us when we needed to go somewhere.

As the years have gone by and I’ve gotten older, driving has been an increasing cause of anxiety for me. I’m more aware of how much driving is really a privilege and not a right (as many teens may feel). Cars can be deadly weapons if not used correctly. Even if you’re the safest driver out there, your safety is not entirely in your own hands, unfortunately. Nowadays with all our technology, there are so many more distracted drivers causing problems for everyone. I know in the grand scheme of things I might be overly dramatic on this topic, but once again, this is where my anxiety starts. I’ve had a few driving lessons in the past two years but I just don’t really get behind the wheel much. I have a driver’s license with the B restriction – I need to have a licensed front passenger 21+ years old (I didn’t take the driving portion of the driver’s test yet).

That changes in 2016! 2016 is my “hashtag no excuses” year. I want to work towards being the person I’ve always known I can be. This driver’s license goal was kind of pushed on me because of my bicycle accident 6 weeks ago. My bike had become my main mode of transportation to and from work. Since the injury, hubby takes me to work and my sister-in-law and her boyfriend pick me up. It’s embarrassing to be 26 and not be able to drive myself. Not to mention I feel bad for taking up their time and gas as well. So I’ve registered for my driving test! DPS seems to be backed up so the earliest test day I could get is halfway through February! Until then I’ve at least got several weeks that I can practice driving more. I won’t be driving on the highway anytime soon (another fear I got from my mom) but at least I would be able to run errands close by, leaving more time to spend together when hubby is home.

My goal for now is to practice at least one day this week. I’ll increase it as the weeks go. I’m excited but also very nervous. Wish me luck!

We are a few days into the new year and I have yet to take some time to truly focus and write down my resolutions for the year. Several have been bouncing around in my head. You know, the usual ones: lose weight, eat healthily, exercise more, etc. However, these need to be broken down to be more specific and doable, and I have a few others for this year. I’ve even got some that are already planned and I know I will accomplish! That may be cheating a bit but oh well.

2016 Goals and Resolutions1. Get my real driver’s license (without restriction B)2. Travel and go on adventures
3. Increase net worth, lower debt, pay off car early, maximize Roth IRA contributions (finally opened one)
4. Be more present and work on relationships with family and friends5. Try a new activity at least once a month
6. Read more, get out more, basically less technology dependency
7. Truly work on getting control of my health: exercise at least 3x a week, meal plan and stick to it as much as possible, take my vitamins, supplements, and medicine consistently, avoid binge eating (Sorry, cinnamon rolls. You ruined it for the rest of the sweets.)

These are enough for now. I have plans to go into a bit more detail on some of them because I don’t want this to be a novel so stay tuned.